The gentle wind washed through the village arriving directly at Helios's opened window.
'Ugh..it's cold'
While it was still summer, the night this time around was windy and cold.
For that reason, while Helios wished to have a simple good night's rest, there was one more step he had to take to ensure he could sleep soundly. And that would be closing the window.
As he reluctantly got up from his bed, and got closer to the window he noticed something.
Despite the terrain not allowing for a scenic view, it still gave Helios a good look at the villages surrounding, and what he say out there were lights.
They were scattered all around the hills leading to the village, and while few in number they were still noticeable.
'Those aren't fireflies!'
Helios thought to himself clearly alarmed, he could only think of one thing.
The barrier got breached, and they were already under attack.
But something still didn't feel right, how is it that they were just at the border an hour ago, yet in that short time the small crack they saw had already become large enough for a whole army to slip through.
This left him with two possibilties
A) His assumption is wrong, and its just something else that he need not worry about.
B) The enemy has someone strong enough to use that small crack, to bring down a large part of the barrier, in the span of only about an hour
While he wanted to believe in option A, even he knew that it was more than likely option B.
Which meant they were currently under attack.
'I have to notify Jack about it'
As he rushed out of his room, to his surprise Jack was already standing before his door.
"We are under attack." said Jack
"I know...should we notify the others?"
"No, I think we will have to be the ones to take those guys out"
"Huh?" a clear sense of confusion washed over Helios's face, he didn't understand how he could suggest going against a whole army with just the two of them. Especially one led by someone capable of breaking the goddess's barrier
"Are you out of your mind? How can you suggest going up againsts a whole army alone?"
"What? You've got a better idea? The other people in the village are just ordinary people they wouldn't be able to help us much anyways, and we would lose our only advantage."
"That being?" Helios asked slightly annoyed
"Obviously, the element of surprise"
"But even then..." Helios tried to speak, but got interrupted
"Don't worry Helios, I am an Enlightened level Concepter."
"A what now?"
"Wait, you don't know about Concepters? Right, you are a Newcomer."
"Stop stalling and just tell me quickly."
"Okay, I'll tell you since it should come in handy during the fight"
"Concepters are people who have already awakened the essence of their concept and gained special powers through it."
"Wait concept, do I have a concept? Helios asked
"Everyone has their own concept they could be from a family lineage, from their name, or from a defining trait."
"This is also the only true advantage Newcomers have, since their history is blank they have greater chances to resonate with a concept that hasn't been seen before."
"So how do I know my concept?" Helios asked clearly excited by the notion of finally getting special powers
"Close your eyes, and think of your concept."
"Wait, is it really that simple"
"Yes, just close your eyes" Jack said slightly annoyed by Helios's doubt
Helios closed his eyes and asked the question in his head.
'My concept'
Almost instantly a blazing sun, much like the one he had seen during the day appeared in his mind. Even though it was nothing more than an image in his head the heat from it was clearly felt by it.
Wanting to get rid of it, he tried his hardest to think of something else, but the image of the sun just simply wouldn't disappear.
"What do you see?"
"It's the sun from the sky, but it won't go away no matter how hard I try."
"Just open your eyes dumbass"
Jack slapped Helios slightly on the back, and with it Helios finally opened his eyes.
"So, you satisfied with your result?" Jack asked with a smirk
"Yeah, the sun sounds pretty cool, but how do I actually use it?"
"All of it should already be inside of you, but remember I said Concepters are those who have already awakened their concepts essence, you Helios are a mere Grasper right now."
Helios wanted to ask what a Grasper was, but he kind of already figured it out by their prior conversation, so he decided against it.
"Luckly though, I would assume that your concept is actually combat oriented, this should be good for you."
"By the way me being an Enlightened Concepter, am just about two tiers above your average Concepter, I'm pretty strong."
Not caring much for Jack's bragging Helios instead chose to check on his present abilities, using the same method he had used for checking his concept, which was to head inside his headspace, once again closing his eyes.
'My abilities'
At that very moment he was blessed with the knowledge of a technique, which looked rather simple, but also effective.
Sun coating
He was capable of coating his weapons with the sun's energy. In practice it was just some flames coated on his weapon. It sounded great, at first, but he wasn't sure exactly how effective it would be. He also hoped it wouldn't simply melt the weapon he was using, rendering it useless.
Still he felt like this ability should be better than nothing.
Having been done, with analyzing his new skill, he decided on his next step and it would be to arm themselves.
Thanks to having worked here for a day, he already knew the layout of the small tavern pretty well. And he also happened to know where the weapons, the Wallace couple had brought from Joshua were being stored.
"Hey, you need weapons?"
Helios asked Jack incase he needed one too.
"No I've brought mine"
With that Helios headed downstairs by himself while Jack prepared in his room
'If I'm right the storage room should be right below the stairs on the right.'
Having arrived at the storage Helios tried opening it and was surprised to realise there wasn't a lock on it.
'Well, that's certainly not secure, though it's a small village, I don't think anyone would steal here.'
But he just did.
Entering the storage room he could see a number of different things scattered around, potatoes, a broom, some wooden plates and finally three different weapons.
An axe, a spear and a sword.
While Helios initially wished to reach for the sword, he had other things to think about.
Tonight's operation would mostly be of the assassination type, where the saord would probably excel, but if things went south things could end in a direct confrontation, where if he wasn't skilled enough with the sword he would easily be overwhelmed.
And though, he wqnted to believe he was talented he had never actually held a sword before, so he wasn't confident enough to bet his life on it.
The axe was clearly a no go. While it clearly had the lowest skill floor, its short range made it awkward to use, in both the assassination, and the head on section of the fight.
That left him with the spear. He have heard it somewhere before, that apparantly the spear had a low entry, and many could find success with it easily. It also had the most range which would make it the best choice, if things were to go south. But there was one clear problem, the way the spear handled thanks to its reach made quick sneak kills almost impossible to a newbie like him, which in turn made the spear the worst choice for the assassination portion.
Helios was clearly in a position of havimg to choose between the two goliaths of fantasy combat, the spear and the sword. Of course even he knew his choice wasn't a permanent, were he able to survive tonight's battle he would able to change his choice. Of course that is if he survived.
With a heavy heart he made his choice. He wasn't sure if it was the best choice, but regardless it was the choice he had made and that was, to simply take both.
He knew that this would allow him to engage things with the most fitting weapon in hand, he also knew that his spear would have the potential to reveal him, so he came up with a plan. He would hold the spear get close to someone, but not too close, then he would place his spear on the ground slowly and silently, draw his sword silently of course, and then silently slit the opponents throat, from behind like a true assassin. He had also through, of using the sun coating to cut through the opponent head in one swift slash, but he wasn't sure of how much his ability actually strengthened his weapon's cutting ability. Atleast he knew for sure that both his normal strenght, and this normal sword would not be enough to cut trough one's neck cleanly, which would result in everyone being alerted.
Having made his choice Helios went upstairs to meet up with Jack.
When he got up, he saw an image before his eyes, that he simply couldn't imagine.
The man before him, Jack was clearly a small person by anyone's metric. But what was in his hand, was a great sword so big it was about one head larger than Jack himself.
This image helped Helios ease up a bit before the great fight.
The small man with the greatsword had only one question to ask of Helios.
"Are you ready?"
Helios with a steeled resolve looked down at Jack, and said with a smile on his face.
"Couldn't be readier"